Ryk Brown - Aurora CV-01

“You know, right before he died, he said, ‘get the ship home.’ More specifically, to get the ‘jump drive’ home, that it was their ‘only chance’.”

“By ‘their’, he meant ‘Earth’, right?” Although the captain’s meaning had been obvious, Cameron didn’t care for ambiguity.

“I’m pretty sure.” Nathan looked down for a moment, thinking. He had a terrible feeling that there was something more going on than any of them realized, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. And until he figured it all out, he wasn’t sure who he could trust.

But he also knew that if he was going to get them home, he would need help. He had accepted the responsibility of command, passed to him by his captain. But inside, he knew he wasn’t ready for it. There was so much he still didn’t know. So he was going to have to trust someone. But other than Vladimir, Cameron was the only other person on board that he really knew. In fact, they had spent so much time together in the simulator over the past two weeks, he probably knew Cameron better than he knew Vladimir. So if he was going to trust anyone, he might as well start with her.

Nathan sat back up, recomposing himself before continuing. “Listen, if we’re going to get through this and get home, we need to get organized. I’m going to need an executive officer.”

“Who did you have in mind?”

Nathan raised his head to look at her, a slight smile forming at the corner of his mouth.

Cameron suddenly realized his intent, sitting up straight in shock. “Oh, get serious.”

“You’re the most qualified person I know, Cam.”

“I’m the only person you know, except for Vladimir. And there’s no way I’m letting him become XO.”

“Then you’ll do it?”

“On one condition. I get to object whenever I want.”

“Like I could stop you?” he smiled.

Cameron smiled back. “Not in a million years,” she laughed.

“Then it’s a deal?” Nathan held out his hand to shake on it.

“Yeah,” she reluctantly agreed, taking his hand. “It’s a deal.”

“Great. Besides, I need Vlad in engineering anyway.”

“You’re an ass,” she exclaimed, tossing his hand aside.

“Well, since you’re XO now, I guess it falls on you to determine the condition of our ship and her crew. Feel free to grab whoever you need to help.”

“Yes Sir,” she answered, mocking a salute.

“But don’t be gone too long, I need to go down to medical and get my leg treated. And I want to go by engineering to see how Vlad is doing with our guests.”

“I can pretty much do everything from here,” she offered, feeling a bit guilty that she had forgotten that he was wounded and had probably been in pain the entire time. “If you prefer, you could go now?”

“Thanks, no. I just want to rest for a few minutes first. Besides, maybe you should at least take a quick break, get off the bridge, stretch your legs a bit.”

“I could use a trip to the head,” she admitted. Nathan could tell that she too welcomed even a short respite. Cameron stood up to leave. “I think I’ll do a quick walk around the main decks, get a feel for the general condition of things,” she decided. “I shouldn’t be too long, maybe an hour.”

“See if you can rustle me up some water, will ya?” he smiled.

“I’ll see what I can find,” she promised as she walked past. She felt herself instinctively about to place her hand on his shoulder, as a show of bonding and support as she passed, but stopped short of doing so. She still wasn’t sure how all of this was going to play out, and she wasn’t entirely comfortable giving him her full support just yet. Less than a week ago, they had been competing for the same spot at the helm. Had she gotten that position, it would’ve been her sitting in the command chair instead of Nathan Scott.

“Doctor Sorenson,” Nathan asked as he rose and stepped over to her station, “I know you’ve had a difficult day, probably more so than the rest of us. I just want you to know that I am very sorry about your father.”

“Thank you, Captain.” In all the commotion over the last few hours, she had not been given any time to mourn his passing. “I appreciate your concern. But I’ll be alright.” She paused for a moment before continuing, gathering her thoughts. “You know, ever since my mother died, this project was all that he had.”

“I’m sorry, Doctor. I didn’t know.”

“Please, call me Abigail,” she insisted. “Anyway, it was more than ten years ago.” She looked away from Nathan, her eyes welling up again despite her best efforts. “That’s why I joined this project. If I hadn’t, I probably would never have seen him. It consumed his every waking moment.” She wiped her eyes, a smile breaking through the sorrow as she looked up at Nathan. “He said that this technology would ‘change everything’.”

“At least he got to see it work for himself before he died,” Nathan offered.

Abigail just nodded, still trying to keep her emotions under control. “Funny thing is, I knew this project would kill him. But I always assumed he would work himself to death, in his lab.”

Nathan felt guilty for imposing upon her during such a difficult time, but he needed the skills that only she could provide. “Listen, Abigail, I hate to ask you for anything else. I mean, you’ve already saved our butts twice today. But I need to know what kind of condition your systems are in. I need to know what I can count on this ‘Hyperluminal Translator Thingy’ to do for us.” Nathan flashed the same smile that usually got him out of trouble with his mother.

“Just go ahead and call it a ‘Jump Drive’,” she conceded.

“You see? It is easier,” he bragged. “Anyway, maybe later you could fill me in on how this thing works, and what we can, and more importantly cannot do with it.”

“Yes, of course,” she agreed, nodding her head up and down several times as she sniffed. “Whatever needs to be done.”

“Great, thanks Abigail.” Nathan put a comforting hand on her shoulder as he turned toward the port entrance, where Jessica had just entered.

“Sir,” Jessica greeted him as she approached. “Now that all of the rebel ships have left, I have nothing left to guard. Marak and his two guys are still working in engineering, and I’ve got a couple guys watching Marak’s ship. So I came up here to see what I could do.”

Nathan had known that Jessica was strong the first night he had met her. But he had been more than impressed at how she had handled herself over the last few hours. More than anyone, she had met every challenge thrown at her head-on, without hesitation. More importantly, she had demonstrated excellent instincts. And that was something that you were born with-a lesson he had learned from Captain Roberts. Nathan had always been good at sizing people up quickly. That was a talent he had inherited from his father. And he knew that Jessica was someone he needed in his corner.

“In Special Operations school, they not only teach you about specialized combat and tactics, right? They also teach you about things like intelligence gathering and security, stuff like that?”

“Yes Sir. Spec-Ops are trained to go covert, to gather intel, hit hardened targets and the like. So it also requires a detailed understanding of security.” Jessica could go on about her highly specialized training for hours, as it was a great source of pride for her. But it suddenly occurred to her that there was probably a reason for his question. “Why do you ask?”

“I’m going to need someone to handle ship’s security, at least temporarily. I’ve got enough to think about, and you seem to have a knack for this sort of thing.”

“I appreciate the offer, Sir. But I’m not sure I’m ready,” she protested.